A laughing matter

Yesterday was one of those days...you know "those" days.

Sometimes when my life is so unbelievably hectic, as in could not possibly be real, I MUST be dreaming, kind of unbelievably hectic, I can't help but just embrace it.

At the end of almost every day, when its quiet and all of my children have made it safely through the day, I think to my self "gee-golly today was busy"...yesterday I thought "HOLY HELL today was IN-FRIGGIN-SANE"

The morning started with one of the girls "getting sick" in the bathroom.  Which immediately makes me sick, because when you have multiple children, sharing bedrooms, a bathroom, clothes, most likely toothbrushes and other things that they will regret sharing later, you are bound to spread germs...its inevitable, when one gets sick, the rest always follow.

I kept sicky home from school, and sent the others off.

After some medicine, bananas, toast, gatorade and TV, my little one was stable enough to run errands with me...the errands were planned well before she was sick and I kept her in the air conditioned car most of the time.  The only person I exposed her "ickies" to was her 2 year old brother who decided to be overally affectionate that day, despite my pleads of "stop kissing your sick sister" and will likely be the first of the siblings to catch her bug.

I thought for sure a day of playing "nurse" and cleaning up messes (apparently when you are sick, you have no control over your extremities, therefor spilling or knocking down anything within 5 feet of you...this happened all day.) while packing for our move would be hectic enough of a day.

It was just the beginning. 

I picked up the others from school, all of whom slept on the car ride home, if you don't know..their school is almost an hour away.

After getting home, the littlest girl stumbled from our van directly to the couch.  I woke her up to do homework, but her response was mostly just high pitched whining...I couldn't deal, so I sent her up to her room.  When I went to check on her 10 minutes later, she was out like a light.  When I felt her, she was burning up.  Bad mom.  Sick kid #2 for the day.  I gave her some Tylonol and let her be.

Recap: 2 sick kids, 2 kids with a lot of homework, 1 kid who needs a lot of attention and has found a blue marker and is beginning to look like wild smurf, boxes EVERYWHERE, and a dog...my poor, forgotten dog (if anyone has middle child syndrome its him)

It gets better, the girls have cheerleading practice at 6...by their school...almost an hour away,

The babysitter comes to watch the sick ones and the smurf.

I take the two healthy girls to cheerleading...and get stuck in traffic, it took us an hour and 15 minutes to get there.

During practice I received a very stressful call regarding our new home, the closing date, and a bunch of "what ifs."  I already started packing...I'm moving...somewhere...lock your doors, if I know where you live, I may be coming for an extended stay.

The car ride home is where the hectic starts.

I actually could of handled everything else up until this point.

I hear "mommy the brush is stuck in my hair" coming from the back seat.  I look in my rearview.  "Stuck" is an understatement.  A hairbrush is growing out of my child's head.  I laugh..hard.  She cries.  I tell her I will get it out when we get home...in an hour.

I laugh a few more times when I catch a glmpse of her in the mirror...she laughs too, her sister laughs harder.. "brush-head" cries again.

On the ride home I realize that the baby (who is now home with daddy) is wearing his last diaper...almost immediately I recieve this text:

"Jacob is peeing everywhere!!!!"

OK, so he was wearing his last diaper...

I stop at the store to grab diapers, while in the parking lot I attempt to remove the brush from my daughters hair.  It is not happening.

We finally get home.  As soon as I walk through the door, I see my son standing at the top of the stairs, naked, with tears running down his face, he frantically says to me "Sowwy mommy, I peed on your shoes!!"

 I laughed...he cried more...I hugged him.

"Brush head" is now hysterically crying.  I perform emergency surgery and remove the object, she survives and is left with a slightly horrible haircut.

I sit down in the kitchen, by myself,  and laugh.  One of my daughters walks in the room and asks why I am laughing.  Her face lights up, as if to say "tell me the joke...I want in!"

I look at her and say "Some day, when you are a grown up, you will get it...you will laugh too sometimes"

She looks at me like I'm crazy (which I may be).

I could of cried, complained or been angry yesterday but I chose laughter, sometimes you just HAVE to :)


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4 is more (than 3)

For the past two years I  have had 3 children in elementary school.  We did homework every night, required reading and occasional projects, it was a lot of work, but manageable.   This year I have 4 children in school, and I am in over my head.

I also have a 2 year old that could be the poster child for the slogan "TERRIBLE TWO'S!"

Our days are hectic, exhausting and jam packed with education.

I attend meetings, sign up to volunteer, and run around trying to find "requested" materials (that word "donate" gets me every time...times 4)

Each day after school there is at least 2 hours worth of homework to be done, sometimes longer depending on if a child has a melt down from sheer exhaustion, or if an entire sheet of math was done incorrectly and has to be redone.  Short stories are usually too short and need more sentences added, spelling, vocab and social studies have to be studied for and the amount of signatures that I make each day for behavior, test scores, permission slips or what ever else, is causing me to consider turning a blind eye to forgery.

Although I would do anything for my children, the expected responsibilities become very overwhelming at times. A mothers work really does go unnoticed, a parents work for that matter.  Most kids have no idea what we do for them, and how much we sacrifice.

I sometimes wonder, why cant they do these things themselves...why must my life be consumed by forms, letters, parent teacher meetings,  and HOMEWORK.  I did my time...though I was not very successful.  I feel like a student again, less the new clothes every year, packed lunch, and manicured hair...

Yesterday while talking to my 3rd grader about her day, she told me that she got two answers wrong on her homework from the night before. IMPOSSIBLE...I checked it!  We went over the problems, and I realized that I actually hadn't caught her errors (3rd grade math is challenging...err I mean she's gifted and on an 11th grade level) .  I explained to her what she did wrong, and she fully understood.  After she put her homework away she looked at me and said "Mommy, you're one of the only parents who checks their kids homework, a lot of the kids in my class get things wrong"

My heart broke.  I couldn't imagine, not helping my child.  I am so proud of them, especially when they have a strong understanding of a subject and bring home high grades. I love report card day, and actually look forward to conference night.  I want to hear if my child is struggling so we can work extra hard in those area, academically or socially, I want my child to be confident in all areas.

The every day work is hard.  The constant correcting, reminding, and reinforcing is exhausting.  I have to tell my children the same things every day, they misspell the same words, use the same excuses and try to get away with the same things.  I will be a happy parent when everything sticks, and I don't have to be annoyed by my own requests.

That day will come, it will be a long, bumpy road but it will get here faster than I may want.  My children know that I check, and double check their homework, I talk to their teachers, am active in their lives and ask questions...they have no idea how hard it is, or that sometimes I don't want to do "that", but I know that they are becoming better students because of it.

One day they will bring home a test that they aced, studied for themselves and that I had no idea about.

That is why they can't do it by themselves right now, and although I may think I  have done my time this is my real time, the most important,  the most meaningful, the time that will give me the most reward.

4 is more than 3, and when my son is a little older 5 will be more than 4, the years will be more difficult before they get easier, MORE homework, MORE tests and oh so many more signatures but all this hard work will provide me with 5 children who I will have helped mold into 5  wonderful people who will do GREAT things!


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